Health and Holiness Don’t Come Easy

Health and Holiness Don’t Come Easy

” … inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world’.” – Matthew 25:34

It’s no secret to those who know me that I don’t like to cook. I never have. Granted, this a bit of a challenge since for the past almost 20 years my sole job has been a housewife. If you were to write a job description for the role of housewife, I think most people would include cooking and preparing meals as a significant part of that job description. I should clarify here that’s it’s also not that I can’t cook. When I prepare food it comes out pretty good most of the time, and sometimes even really good. It’s that my heart just really isn’t into cooking, so I try to avoid it except on those days when I have nothing better to do. And sometimes a trip to the dentist is a more appealing thing for me to do than cook, so I think you can appreciate how little I enjoy it.

While it’s rarely my first choice to cook, it is however, a priority of mine to eat! I love to eat! Especially junk food. All the packaged, processed foods that get all the bad publicity these days? I {heart} them. Deeply.

The thing is, as scientists and nutritionists tell us, those foods really aren’t good for us and have no redeeming value. The vitamins, nutrients, and minerals that are necessary to human health and long life are severely lacking in these foods. So we are advised to include them in our diets only rarely, if ever.

In Matthew’s Gospel today, Jesus provides a similar caution about our eternal health. Just as many of the perfectly legal and totally enjoyable (but often harmful) foods in the American diet are not advised for health and long life, many of the perfectly legal and totally enjoyable things about the American way of life (egocentricity, promiscuity, money-grubbing) are not advised for our eternal health. Today, Jesus warns us that the life we live here on earth –this brief, worldly life– is in many ways a preview of what our eternal life will center around based on the choices we make while here.

So, while I love Suzy Q’s and Girl Scout cookies (I’m looking at you, Caramel Delights), I must admit that my health suffers from them when they aren’t taken in small doses. (I say this with confidence as I single-handedly stuffed my face with a box of Caramel Delights over the course of an afternoon and evening this past week. I mean, I had to off-set all that Lenten fasting with something, right?)

The point is this: most of us enjoy things that are not good for us. Most of us don’t willingly choose a life of healthy eating, nor do we choose a life of holiness and selflessness. But most of us also desire to live a long, healthy life and I think most of us–regardless of what we believe comes after this earthly life–would like that time to be spent without pain and suffering. But our choices matter, and we must train ourselves to desire what is right and good for us in order to get the outcomes we desire…in this life, and the next.

Reflect: What is the one most unhealthy or unholy practice, habit or addiction in my life right now? In what ways do I rationalize spending time doing this thing I love even though I know it isn’t good for me? What is one change I can make to put more distance between me and that unhealthy or unholy habit in my life?

Pray: Lord, thank you for loving us so much you only want what is best for us. You know our human weaknesses. Though you desire for us to be healthy and holy, you never force us to be. Help strengthen us to stand firm against our weaknesses. Make your desire for us, our desires, too! Give us the wisdom to begin building the foundations of healthy and holy habits both in this world and the next. Amen.